Have you ever watched a movie at home with the sound muted? It is amazing what a difference the sound makes in a movie experience. Of course the dialogue makes it easier to understand what is happening but sound also adds texture, emotion and atmosphere to each scene.

Watching the latest horror or thriller would be much less scary if you couldn’t hear the footsteps of the murderer creeping up behind you. Action movies would seem unrealistic if we didn't hear the screeches of the car chase from around the corner. Even what looks like a fairly common city scene on screen involves hours of technical expertise. Imagine all the sounds that are involved from traffic, people walking down the street, the sound of the wind, music coming from cars – all this has to be put together and mixed with the film's dialogue.

Star Wars in 1976 was the first major film to incorporate Dolby Stereo and bring it to the mainstream. Since then, the company has worked to develop ever more exhilarating cinema sound, introducing Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound to the cinema in 1992. In 1998 Dolby Digital Surround EX™, was launched, giving an extra back channel and therefore a wider canvas for sound designers to use. Star Wars – The Phantom Menace, was the first film to use this extra channel. For more information visit www.dolby.co.uk

But these benefits aren’t restricted to the cinema. With cinematic technology in our homes too we are starting to enjoy the full sonic experience in our own front rooms or even on the move. Dolby Digital soundtrack Analogue soundtrack

Dolby’s Robin Dyer will be joined by sound effects producer Mark Taylor live online on Wednesday 26th October at 1330hrs. Together they will let us into all the secrets of film sound from 'foots and moves' to 'foley', 'body moves' and 'wild track'. Mark's past projects include the movies:Valiant (Pigeon animation with Ricky Gervais), Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), Alien vs. Predator, Troy, TV drama Band of Brothers, Snatch and others.

Host: Murry Norton (MN)

Guests: Mark Taylor (MT) and Robin Dyer (RD)

MN: Hello and welcome to webchats. Now you've probably heard of the word Dolby when you've seen it on an old cassette recorder or even on something as modern as your surround-sound system that you've just bought with your flat screen television, but was does Dolby mean and how does sound actually enhance what we watch either at home or in the cinema? Here are two people that can answer those questions for us. I'm delighted to say we've got Mark Taylor who's a sound mixer who's worked on very illustrious movies such as Elizabeth and Troy and several others, Mark, it's very good to have you with us, thank you very much indeed. And I'm delighted to say we've got Robin Dyer from Dolby who can answer some of our questions, and talking about questions as you are watching this, there's a little box at the bottom of the screen where you can put your questions to us but make it quick as we've only 30 minutes, some of those questions coming in already. Lots of you must have known we had the webchat on today so you got your questions in early. Tom wants to know: Was Dolby someone's name or is it an acronym?

RD: There actually is a Mr Dolby, Ray Dolby who actually started the company back in 1965 in Clapham in London, and then moved to San Francisco where our head office is based now. He first started out working on noise reduction on tapes etcetera, which is where it went into cassettes and ultimately went into the cinema industry, which has moved from mono to stereo and then multi-channel surround, as we know it today. Then more up to date is DVD movies as they come from the cinema into the home all those suites of technology are used in those formats.

MN: It's interesting because I always thought Dolby meant something, but it's actually a company name that has always worked in sound.

RD: Yes, absolutely, and it's also important to point out that certainly in consumer space we don't produce products as such, we leave that to all our partners, all the big Japanese consumer electronic manufacturers, it's only in the professional space that we actually provide products and Dolby's involved in the whole chain all the way from movie production all the way through to playback in cinema then ultimately into DVD, so it's the technology that we provide.

MN: It's interesting, I was reading up on that, it does seem that there were two separate industries at one time, the cinema industry, and television if you like, and what we would receive at home, and also in fact audio playback, music that we would listen to, three different industries each doing their own thing completely separate to each other, but it's all together hasn't it Mark?

It has, yes; with the advent of modern technology effectively if we do a TV mix it is the same as what we call a theatrical mix for cinema. You've got various companies now broadcasting digitally, which is great, I think Sky Movies broadcast digitally, so people can enjoy what we do in their own homes, which is fantastic.

MN: I just want to discuss, and this is probably going to get a little bit technical, but I hope it doesn't otherwise I'm going to glaze over and that will be the end of it all, I'll fall off the end of the sofa, but in terms of the cinema sound which we have been used to for a little while, that's now been created at home and I keep hearing this thing, '5.1', now 5.1 what? Is it 5.1 version 5.1 or?

No, basically refers to the number of speakers now 5 full range speakers, you have a left, centre right behind the screen you have two surrounds, a surround left and right, and you have a sub-type woofer which is the point one. So any time you refer to a point one it's the sub-woofer.

MN: So those are your 5.1 speakers?

MT: Correct.

MN: And that's what you'd get in the cinema?

MT: Yes.

MN: And so are you working when your creating sound, you're very much working with that in mind?

MT: Yes, we sit in a room that's basically a small version of a cinema, so we have a mixing console that's in front of us; we then decide where we are going to put stuff be it geographically or dramatically. If a car does a pan then obviously we'll do it but if you want something to fly in from the surrounds as a dramatic point then we can do that as well.

MN: So you decide which speaker it's going to come out of when you lay the soundtrack down?

MT: Yes

MN: It's all making a little bit more sense. It didn't used to be 5.1 did it, there used to be an effects speaker at the back and then the other speakers at the front, wouldn't that be fair?

MT: Well the old Dolby stereo was effectively four channels, which was very clever, they used to encode four channels into two so they could marry it to the 35mm print and then decode it back out to four when it got to the cinema. So it was a mono surround so you had a left, centre, right and mono surround.

MN: The Upshot is we're all enjoying watching films a bit more because of what we can hear. Which brings in Sarah's question, thank you Sarah, she wants to know how does sound enhance a film~? Mark, where do you start on this?

MT: Well, turn the sound down and then you'll see straight away. Dialogue gives you your story, and the music does your emotions, the sound effects help both and in certain instances make sequence far more interesting.

MN: And in terms of doing that, you're involved in everything?

MT: No, I'm not involved in the music, the music is a separate entity that we tend to get later on in the process, I concentrate on the effects and the dialogue side of things, but they tend to be the three main constituents of a movie's sound: music, dialogue and effects.

MN: Helen's just come in with a question which is kind of a follow on from the last one. Can you think of any examples that really identify where sound has made such a difference to a movie?

Every one of them! Apocalypse Now is an example, I think that opening sequence is just fantastic, it sets the whole mood for the movie, fantastic use of music, great visuals but you know you're in for something special with that whole bleed through into the fan in Martin Sheen's bedroom.

MN: Have you always been a movie fan? Do you find it very difficult to watch a movie because you're always listening to the sounds?

MT: I think you go through stages. When I first started I used to go to the cinema and thing, right, let's see what they have been up to, but now I tend to watch them more as a punter, and then I take the DVDs home and start analysing what they've been up to.

MN: Deconstruct it later?

MT: Yeah, well, it's interesting to watch a film and think, wow, that effect's interesting and break it down and watch it in slow motion or even phone them up and say 'How did you do it?'

MN: You've been to the cinema and watched Troy having worked on it, do you then listen to other people having watched it in the cinema coming out and saying 'It wasn't that great'?

I think the thing with sound is that people don't talk about sound enough. People will go and see a movie because of who's in it, rather than what it sounds like and if they come out and say 'That's a great soundtrack' then obviously I'm pleased but most of the time if the just come out an say it's a great film I'll be pleased because what we've done hasn't detracted from their viewing pleasure if you like.

MN: James from Edinburgh wrote: Do you think that sound is more important for any particular genre of film?

MT: Yeah, absolutely, I think horror films in particular and also war films, anything with battles, or films on a large scale where you've got a lot of people.

MN: I want to go to a question I was thinking of earlier on, which is we a misconception when we think of a film being made that it's on set and that it's 'Quiet please, on set!' and it's films rolling, they record the sound, they record the moving pictures there and then, and that's it, you just embellish it a little bit, but it's not quite like that is it?

MT: It's not at all like that, really the only sound that we use from the location is the dialogue, sometimes they'll be effects if they're recorded bespoke effects. But you'll have the sound of the crew walking down the steps that you'll need to take out, you need to add an atmospheric sound to the hallway then we'll add the footsteps of the guy walking down the stairs, building it back, but having control over the ingredients that we put back in.

MN: We just take it all so much for granted. And again, I was going to mention this at the beginning, we take Dolby as a name very much for granted too. It's like the way we always say Hoover instead of vacuum-cleaner and we know that's a brand name but we tend to do it because we've got used it. And Dolby's been around forever, we see it on the front of stereos and TVs and it's on the final credit in the cinema but it's always been there so we take that for granted too.

RD: Yes, we have and our mission is to enhance that entertainment whether it's watching films or listening to music or playing games for example, and the only thing that differs then is where you are, if you happen to be in the car, at home, in the cinema our technologies are there to enhance that experience to make it as real as possible. Mark's there beavering on the sound effects and the mixing to make sure it's as real as possible and compelling so that when you go to the cinema you're absolutely immersed and taken away to that environment. Audio and sound is such a big part of that, it's not just the visual aspect.

MN: I'd forgotten actually about games of course. I know it's not a department that you work in but it's a huge market, and something that Dolby's involved in.

RD: Absolutely, pretty much nine out of ten games that's produced on every platform whether it's on a PC, an Xbox or a Playstation for examples, all of those games are available in surround sound so you can quite happily plug in your home cinema and rather than stuff little Johnny up in the bedroom with a portable TV, all of a sudden you get this whole immersive experience where people are overtaking you, creeping up behind you etcetera so games are actually really big.

MN: OK, questions coming in thick and fast, next one from Damian, thank you. Do all films use Dolby, and if not, so they sound better than the ones that do use Dolby?

RD: All big blockbuster will use surround sound in one form or another, which we instigated. In the early seventies you just had stereo, now you've got now discreet sounds so the work that Mark does on the editing, the mixing side of it is making sure it's not just compelling but it's coming from the right place and not many people know that behind the cinema screen are actual speakers so when you hear dialogue it's coming from actually where they're speaking. It's the same with DVDs; it's making sure that whole experience is as real and compelling as possible.

MN: Paula wants to know what does surround sound exactly mean? Probably a clue in the name, surround, does that mean it's actually around you?

MT: Exactly that, speakers around you, in the cinema you have obviously where the screen is you have left, centre right speakers which is where most of the dialogue and in fact most of the sound comes out of those but you also have speakers behind you and along the walls as well as in front of you. So it's quite literally that.

MN: Troy was one of my favourite films says William, what did you do on Troy?

MT: I was one of the re-recording mixers on Troy; I was responsible for mixing all the effects.

MN: Effects being, what those arrows?

The arrows, the swords, the army…

MN: How do you get the sound of an arrow? You don't have someone sitting there going “Choo choo choo'

MT: No, my colleague James Boyle designed a lot of the sounds for that and actually used Formula 1 cars as an element, that screeching element, the idea of lots of arrows. If you fire an arrow it doesn't actually make lots of noise but to sell the idea of thousands of arrows raining down on him...

MN: It's very interesting because we're very accepting of that aren't we, because, we don't question whether arrows sounds like that?

MT: They actually went and shot those arrows and there was a bloke standing there with an arrow dodging the arrows!

MN: And I bet that no one actually knows what a thousand around fired in one go actually sounds like but we now have an industry standard for that.

MT: We have an interpretation, absolutely.

MN: Which is much the same as what's used on Gladiator and things as well, we have a sound that we accept as arrows flying now.

MT: It's like jaw socks, we expect when someone gets punched on screen to have an enormous larger-than-life sound because that's what Hollywood has done all these years, from John Wayne upwards.

MN: What type of films are your favourite to work on and why?

MT: I would say probably animation. I've only done one but I found that fantastically enjoyable because you are creating from a blank canvas and the guys did a fantastic job with laying everything down for us. You can pan everything, we panned dialogue and because it's C.., computer generated, you can have stuff flying in from surrounds. So definitely animation.

MN: Following from Ruth this time - What's your favourite scene from a film?

RD: From a surround point of view the beginning of 'Saving Private Ryan'. Not because of the violence of the graphics on the screen but from the sheer surround. It almost set the standards of what war time movies sound like. There are lots of others but that really sets the standard for surround sound.

MT: Nothing to do with sound, but Once Upon A Time In The West when we find out what Charles Bronson's gripe is with Henry Fonda. Fantastic. Very emotive.

MN: Lois says - Which film could you have made the sound better on? That means you've got to criticise someone else's work now.

MT: I'd never criticise someone else's work, a film soundtrack to me is like a painting, it's a series of events frozen in time, you have to have a cut off point. They've all got their good points and they've all got their bad points but I wouldn't like to say that there's any one movie. But there are certain movies that I'd like to re-create what happened, one of my favourite films is Rear Window, fantastic soundtrack, unfortunately mono but fantastic, to have that opportunity to re-create that, you don't want to leave the room.

MN: Technical questions on the way, Jenny has a technical question. Foots and moves, what do they mean?

MT: It's what a Foley artist does. We're all sitting here; if we took our mics away you wouldn't hear us doing this. So that is a moves track, that somebody watching a screen and you hear their footsteps, so they re-record the sounds pretty much

MN: These are people whose actual job is to come to work every day and move around? Skilled job?

MT: Very skilled, very difficult, because you're watching an image and you have to translate that image, react to it in seconds, and in sync.

MN: Charlotte has a follow up question. Is there a directory? Where you can say, ah we need the sound of someone's hand being chopped off, is there a book you can refer to or is it just common knowledge?

MT: No, it's usually celery or cabbage I think are the victims there.

MN: You grew up with sound workshops, the BBC workshops and such like. So there isn't a directory or such, but those in the business just know what they'd use?

MT: Yes.

MN: What about squelchy horrible gory stuff, what do you use?

MT: Food stuff, you would probably use pasta, or rice pudding or something.

MN: Pasta! What would you do to pasta or rice pudding?

MT: Put your hand in it and really squelch it about.

MN: Fantastic. You must have a great workshop!

MT: It's good fun, yeah.

MN: Have you ever mixed a film in surround EX? What does EX mean?

MT: It's extra speaker really, but no, I haven't.

MN: What's the difference between Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro-Logic?

RD: I'll try to keep it as simple as possible, Dolby Digital was the technology that was primarily used in the cinema industry initially, a soundtrack that's recorded and put onto the film print is actually recorded between the sprockets on the film print itself. It's the same technology that was used for DVD; it's the technology that was mandated as standard for all DVDs so whether it's two channel or five channel audio that's on the DVD you will be able to have a Dolby soundtrack when you have it back at home. The difference between that and Pro-Logic, if you consider that stereo is where we were, and Dolby Digital is where we are, in between there's Pro-Logic and Pro-Logic 2, and it takes any stereo material whether it's mp3 players, VHS, broadcast and TV and creates a surround experience from that. So if you've got a surround set=up at home and you've only got stereo content, that could be CDs that you can plug into your home cinema system or mp3 players, Pro-Logic 2 will convert that into surround sound. It's not as discreet, it's not as good as Dolby Digital but you will get stereo that sounds good on surround sound.

MN: Have we reached the limits now? Surely sound can't get any better, and if it does, surely we won't notice the difference anyway...

RD: Well I think what's happened certainly in the consumer industry is that the buzz at the moment is flat panels coming along and certainly the video in the home is catching up with the audio side, because DVD has been such a successful consumer electronic platform, that people are really not getting the best out of that just yet, they're buying DVDs and DVD players because they want the instant access and special features but there's very few of them that are connected to surround sound systems so they're missing out on surround sound experience.

MN: So all the hard work that you're doing is falling on deaf ears, quite literally?

RD: Yes. My analogy would be that once you've listened to good movie in a properly set up surround sound system you will not go back to using stereo. It's like you wouldn't go back to watching it in black and white.

MN: You mentioned extra channels; 'We Were Soldiers' was recorded with a ceiling channel, what does that mean?

MT: As far as I can work out, a ceiling channel is where you've got a speaker in the ceiling, so an extra height speaker so when you're doing a fly over you've got an extra sound destination for your sound to come out of.

MN: A question from Jessica who's studying film, how does she get into the business? What's your best advice?

MT: Start at the bottom

MN: Go there and say please can I make the tea?

MT: That's where I started. Try to be a runner.

MN: What is a runner? Is that just fetching things, knocking on doors?

MT: Yes, that kind of thing.

MN: Neil wants to know which film do you think should have won an Oscar for it's sound and why? A film that you've worked on that you've thought was that good it should have got an Oscar...

MT: I don't know really. Snatch I really enjoyed doing, I'd say that. Good fun.

MN: Do you ever use friends and family? I guess as a sound mixer, someone's who's recording and constantly looking for sound or a different way of creating sound...

MT: Yes, my daughter appeared in a couple of movies anyway, she's very theatrical anyway, so yes.

MN: She's been in?

MT: She's been in Troy screaming, she's also in a film I've just finished, Joy Division, playing a German girl even though she doesn't speak German. Just buried in the mix but she's there, I know she's there! But she doesn't get credit, not yet.

MN: A question from Lewis here. Which film do you wish you had worked on?

MT: Probably something like Rear Window. I would really have liked to have worked with Alfred Hitchcock. He's fantastic.

MN: The shower scene is a classic in the terms of picture editing but certainly the sound must have been..

MT: I love the film as a whole so certainly something like that

MN: Mark, are you constantly looking for everyday items you can make sounds out of?

MT: It's very sad but yes, there'll be a group of grown men stood around dropping things going ooh, that sounds good let's go and record it. So yes.

MN: Can you not synthesise some of these bits?

MT: Yes, but it's not the same. I think if you start with a good, original organic sound, recorded well, then you can manipulate it to your hearts content.

MN: Your favourite film noise effect?

MT: Silence.

MN: But you have to put silence on...

MT: No you just cut everything out. But it's definitely silence because then everything has a level. Then you come back from silence and it shocks people.

MN: We've all learnt a little about the film industry, Mark, thanks for that, and also about Dolby and why Dolby's there. If anyone's thinking hang on, I still need some more advice before I go down to the retailer, can they get advice from somewhere?

RD: Yes, if you log onto dolby.com and we've found from experience that the most asked question is 'How do I set up my home theatre system?' so there's advice on that and the best places to put your speakers at optimum, and lots of simple messages about how the technology works and what benefits they'll give you. There's advice on what to look for, what logos to look for and what benefit that's going to give you.

MN: Thank you, we shall look at Dolby in a different way and we'll look at the sound, how can I put that, we'll listen to the sound every time we go the movies and think mark might have had something to do with that. Thank you both for joining us today.

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